Survey about analog photography

Hello everyone! I wasn't sure where to put this thread, so moderators may move it to another category!

I just wanted to check if someone around here wanted to answer some questions about analog photography for a project I'm doing in school? That would be cool. The answers will be treated anonymously.

Questions:
1. Age and gender
2. Do you shoot professionally (digital and/or analog)? What subjects do you shoot in that case?
3. When did you start shooting analogically, and when did you start photographing (if you started out with digital photography)?
4. What equipment (camera) do you use? If you use multiple cameras, you can write down all of them and which one you use the most.
5. Do you develop your film yourself, and what technique do you use in that case?6. Why do you shoot analogically and what benefits do you think there is with analogue photography? Feel free to respond as fully as possible on this matter. For example, if you shoot analogically because of the appearance of the photos, please describe specifically what it is in the look that you like, etc. If there are many different reasons, please write down all. (This is the most important question)
7. Are there any particular subjects that you think that analogue photography is particularly suitable for, respectively not suitable for?
8. Will you continue to shoot analogically in the future?

If you also shoot digitally:
9. Approximately how much of your photography do you estimate that you shoot analogically?
10. What is it that makes you not photograph only analogically?
11. Is there anything that could make you photograph analogically even more?

You can answer directly in the thread or post me a message, whatever works. Thanks in advance!
/Heli

1. Age and gender > 53 M
2. Do you shoot professionally (digital and/or analog)? What subjects do you shoot in that case? > No
3. When did you start shooting analogically, and when did you start photographing (if you started out with digital photography)? Analogue '65 onwards. Digital only 2000 - 2008
4. What equipment (camera) do you use? If you use multiple cameras, you can write down all of them and which one you use the most. Mainly Olympus OM, Mamiya 645, Yashica TLR. + others
5. Do you develop your film yourself, and what technique do you use in that case? Y. B&W only. Still learning.
6. Why do you shoot analogically and what benefits do you think there is with analogue photography? Feel free to respond as fully as possible on this matter. For example, if you shoot analogically because of the appearance of the photos, please describe specifically what it is in the look that you like, etc. If there are many different reasons, please write down all. (This is the most important question) >>
- like to be different
- enjoy the challenge - sense of achievement
- good gear is cheap
- like mechanical things
- spend too much time on computers
- longevity - Digi is transient and relies on active backups, Analogue images can still be around in 100 years after laying untouched
- Enjoy the artistic opportunities
7. Are there any particular subjects that you think that analogue photography is particularly suitable for, respectively not suitable for? > No
8. Will you continue to shoot analogically in the future? > yes

If you also shoot digitally:
9. Approximately how much of your photography do you estimate that you shoot analogically? 95% Analog, 5% Digi
10. What is it that makes you not photograph only analogically? > Sometimes just need an instant snap
11. Is there anything that could make you photograph analogically even more? > No

There has got to be a manual or syllabus which European teachers are using to give class assignments on analogue photography. While I support education (especially higher arts education), there has been a number of similar posts with almost identical questions. I am not trying to be rude or mean to the OP, but how many of these surveys have we had in the past 6 months? Five? Seven?

Once a photographer is convinced that the camera can lie and that, strictly speaking, the vast majority of photographs are "camera lies," inasmuch as they tell only part of a story or tell it in a distorted form, half the battle is won. Once he has conceded that photography is not a "naturalistic" medium of rendition and that striving for "naturalism" in a photograph is futile, he can turn his attention to using a camera to make more effective pictures.

There has got to be a manual or syllabus which European teachers are using to give class assignments on analogue photography. While I support education (especially higher arts education), there has been a number of similar posts with almost identical questions. I am not trying to be rude or mean to the OP, but how many of these surveys have we had in the past 6 months? Five? Seven?

Hi Kevin. I'm doing my examination paper to get my bachelor's degree in graphic design on my university, and we were allowed to choose a subject within graphic design or photography. In other words I chose this subject myself, because I think there's a lack of research on this matter and also because people in general (including my teachers) seem to have the idea that people don't shoot analogically anymore. I'm actually surprised that there has been five–seven surveys like this in the past six months, since it's been super tricky to find similar research reports to refer to. Most are about digital photography.

If the moderators finds this thread repetitive it's fine for me if it's deleted. I don't want to irritate anyone.

And thanks a lot for your answers "mr rusty"!

Last edited by HeliLehtonen; 05-14-2013 at 01:21 PM. Click to view previous post history.

1. 45 M
2. No. Natural world.
3. 1985
4. Pentax 645, Mamiya RB67 Nikon Dslr
5. Standard systems and chemistry6.
- have always enjoyed it
- enjoy hands on work
- sit at computer too much during the day
- VERY SATISIFING to create one's own prints in a darkroom; slow, methodical and creative approach
- digital work is so often done on a trial and error basis - shoot, delete, shoot again etc. Analogue promotes more thought throughout the process. It slows everything down. If you've got only 10 frames on a film, you've got to make them count.

7. No. For me it's not about the subject so much, as about the interpretation or creation of the artwork. This can of course be done in either medium, I just happen to like film.

8. Yes

9. Very hard to say, since the processes are so different, and I use digital for very different subjects
10. Digital has it's place - very quick and simple.
11. I could use more hours in a day.

1. Age and gender: > Male 51
2. Do you shoot professionally (digital and/or analog)? What subjects do you shoot in that case? > No
3. When did you start shooting analogically, and when did you start photographing (if you started out with digital photography)? > 1974
4. What equipment (camera) do you use? If you use multiple cameras, you can write down all of them and which one you use the most. > Oh, too many. Mostly Pentax and Minolta 35mm SLRs. Also, various rangefinders, a Mamiya 645m, and Yashicamat 124. Digital I have a Pentax K200D.
5. Do you develop your film yourself, and what technique do you use in that case? > Yes. Both B/W and C-41
6. Why do you shoot analogically and what benefits do you think there is with analogue photography? Feel free to respond as fully as possible on this matter. For example, if you shoot analogically because of the appearance of the photos, please describe specifically what it is in the look that you like, etc. If there are many different reasons, please write down all. (This is the most important question) > I like my film cameras better than my digital camera as my film cameras are MUCH easier to use and not all plastic stuff. Also, I find myself annoyed at cameras having become computer peripherals. Have to work at computers all day and would rather not do it for hobby projects as well. That being said, I have no fundamental problem with digital photography, just like analog better. A good photograph can be produced either way.
7. Are there any particular subjects that you think that analogue photography is particularly suitable for, respectively not suitable for? Personally, landscapes. But that's also what I often photograph.
8. Will you continue to shoot analogically in the future? Yes, as long as possible to do so.

If you also shoot digitally:
9. Approximately how much of your photography do you estimate that you shoot analogically? 98% or greater.
10. What is it that makes you not photograph only analogically? Sports, specifically soccer. Digital shines here. Obviously no need to change film, although you might have to change batteries, and digital positives ready to go. Again, though, I often have a film SLR in the bag and use that as well for a roll or two.
11. Is there anything that could make you photograph analogically even more? Probably not, other than having more time available.

59 years old male. I don't shoot professional but have have sold a picture or two over the years. I shoot landscapes. I been shooting film since the middle 1970's. I have Canon FD system along with Mamyia RB67 and a Rolliflex TLR 2.8. I'm a analog guy in a digital world. I will always shoot film in the future.

1. 55, male
2. No
3. 1967-1968 (long break) then starting again in 1986.
4. Primarily 35mm gear (Canon FD, Canon EOS, Contax, Minolta MD, Nikon), plus Mamiya 645 Pro and Yashica Mat 124G
5. Yes, I use a daylight Paterson tank for B&W film. I do not process my own color.
6. I prefer the simplicity of film and film cameras (even the latest most advanced ones) over the bewildering array of decisions and menu options I face when I pick up a digital camera. I keep thinking that shooting large format cameras must be so restful.
7. Put another way, I think the instantaneous nature of digital gives it a huge advantage over film with regards to news and event photography, and sports. Everything else, if you're only shooting for yourself, is really just about personal choice. Either works just fine.
8. Yes
9. ~97% analog
10. I am not at all adept at flash photography, and the instant feedback is very useful.
11. My DSLR could go for a swim...

Fred Latchaw
Seattle WA

Right now in Spain they're holding the Running of the Bulls,
followed by the Soiling of the Pants,
and the Burying of the Idiots.

1. Age and gender
Male, 46 years old
2. Do you shoot professionally (digital and/or analog)? What subjects do you shoot in that case?
Twice a wedding, twice a funeral, once portrait series of a band - rest is amateur.

3. When did you start shooting analogically, and when did you start photographing (if you started out with digital photography)?
Got my first camera when I was about 17 (2nd hand analogue camera in 1984). Started seriously with photography in 2001 (analogue) with multiple cameras.

5. Do you develop your film yourself, and what technique do you use in that case?
B&W since 2001 with a simple Jobo tank (135 mm film and roll film), I'm thinking of taking up color development.

6. Why do you shoot analogically and what benefits do you think there is with analogue photography?
Mostly for the fun of it. It also suits me better. Since 2001 digital photography and Photoshop came up rapidly, starting to make analogue a dying art. I decided to go the opposite way mastering the analog darkroom art. Since then I also followed several courses in the old photographic procedures (Post-Factory Photography) from before 1900, like Cyanotype, gum printing, bromoil printing, albuminen printing and salt printing. I also like to "slow down" and go into the field with my old russian FKD plate camera (18x24 cm negatives). It takes me 2 or 3 hours for making just one shot and I enjoy it. I also like to build wooden pinhole cameras and go out and shoot with it. Pinhole Photography is really back to basic.
I also have one digital camera and Photoshop and it is very handy sometimes, but my hart is at analogue photography. Especially manual focus cameras.
My motto is a saying of Ansel Adams: " ... avoiding the common illusion that photography depends on equipment alone ... " (quote from his book: The Camera). Sometimes I think the digital world hasn't grasped that yet. A simple manual focus camera with only 12 to 36 shots makes me think more about what I really want to shoot and how. Instead of shooting hundreds of images, sifting it out later on a computer. I want to see the image in my mind before I press the shutter, instead of afterwards on a LCD on the back of the camera. Just my way of getting away of a hectic world.

7. Are there any particular subjects that you think that analogue photography is particularly suitable for, respectively not suitable for?
Not suitable: maybe for very fast photography, like shooting a wedding at City Hall or the church and have to show the images the same evening. But in the end analogue it is suitable for everything.
For me analogue photography - with a manual camera - is very suitable to get some piece of mind, to get poetic or even creative, or just have some fun all by myself.

8. Will you continue to shoot analogically in the future?
Yes, I certainly will!!
I'm rebuilding the attic above my garage into a darkroom.

If you also shoot digitally:
9. Approximately how much of your photography do you estimate that you shoot analogically?
Time related: 80% analogue.
Number of images: 20% analogue.

10. What is it that makes you not photograph only analogically?
Sometimes digital is handy, for instance to shoot something and post it quickly on internet.
Digital photography is like using a computer to send an email. But to me analogue photography is like enjoying writing a nice and long letter, hand written with a fountain pen on some good stationary to a good friend or a person in need. Or receive one myself ;-)

11. Is there anything that could make you photograph analogically even more?
More free time, cheaper film

Last edited by TheToadMen; 05-14-2013 at 05:56 PM. Click to view previous post history.